A San Francisco jury on Friday ruled that Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors during his turbulent $44 billion takeover of the platform in 2022 with damages potentially exceeding $2.6 billion.
According to Courthouse News Service, the case focused on Musk’s tweets and public remarks in May 2022, when he questioned the deal by alleging that spam and bot accounts represented a large share of Twitter’s user base.
Investors claimed he was fabricating a pretext to withdraw or renegotiate at a lower price, causing the stock to drop. The lead plaintiffs filed suit in October 2022.
After deliberation, the jury unanimously determined that Musk’s 13 May and 17 May tweets were materially false or misleading. However, they did not hold him liable for a May 16 conference statement in which he asserted that 20% of Twitter users were spam accounts. The jury also dismissed broader allegations of a fraud scheme.
Musk’s attorneys have already indicated plans to appeal, describing the verdict as “a bump in the road.”
Plaintiff lawyer Mark Molumphy told Courthouse News that the decision underscores a key principle: wealth does not shield anyone from accountability, a reminder he said feels increasingly relevant today.
